Alongside its missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities, russia continuously carries out powerful cyberattacks to cause a maximum ‘blackout’. However, such scenarios are predictable and therefore do not achieve their objectives. The Chief of the SSU Cyber Security Department Illia Vitiuk spoke about this in an interview to Liga.net.

‘The SSU constantly blocks cyberattacks on energy facilities. This sector, along with infrastructure and logistics, are primary targets for russian special services. Recent strikes on combined heat and power plants and hydroelectric power plants were accompanied by cyberattacks. The SSU expected this - hence, none of them were effective,’ Illia Vitiuk underscores.

According to the Chief of the SSU Cyber Security Department, russia on average carries out over 10 cyberattacks on Ukraine every day. Most of them go unnoticed by the public, but not by professionals who repel and contain them.

‘The enemy wants us to end up without electricity, water, heating, communication, Internet. So that people could not get information, contact their loved ones, pay in a store... But this is already absolutely impossible with our level of preparation and response. In the worst case, through cyberattacks, they can, for example, turn off electricity for a while or disable some services for a short period, but we are working to prevent even this from happening,’ Illia Vitiuk pointed out.

Since the beginning of russia’s full-scale invasion, the SSU Cyber Security Department has repelled over 3,500 cyberattacks on Ukraine’s state agencies and critical infrastructure.